Irshad Manji and Hate Mail

Irshad Manji is without a doubt one of the most interesting religious thinkers in contemporary Islamic discourse. She personifies the modernity that is so often overshadowed by fundamentalist morons who long for a theocratic society based on mediaeval thinking. Ms Manji is also a proud lesbian who used to host her own show on Canadian television. Like most outspoken gay people, she received some hostile mail from religious people. When I looked through her blog I found this example:

I am writing to inform you that the one and only real God, the God of the Bible, make its painfully clear that all Sodomites (meaning homosexuals or like deviants by your warped terminology) have forsaken their humanity for their deranged, perverted, evil lusts. Thereby, they have become abominations, no longer human, and are to be executed immediately according to Leviticus and Deuteronomy, among countless other aspects of the Bible.

The subsequent fate of anyone who commits these sickening acts is an eternity in an unbearable Hell. Contrived propaganda by your repugnant ilk can never prevail over the perfect word of God. Even Jesus Himself directly decreed that anyone so reprobate as to abandon all moral grounding to gratify his own despicable, insane lusts will burn in Hell unquestionably, Luke 17:43.

There are several verses I could cite, all direct and indisputable, because all succinctly condemn Sodomites in whatever context one purports to place them.

A final word: ’If a man so lieth with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death and their blood shall be upon them.’—God.

People have sent me similar letters and emails over the past fifteen years, but I rarely send a reply. I know some people hate me, and it does not bother me. However, the next time someone write to tell me what a horrible sinful and despicable person I am for loving another man, I will reply with a link to Manji’s answer to her letter-writing antagonist:

Dear brother:

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed message. However, in your almost-thorough explanation of my disease-ridden immorality, you failed to mention what version of the Bible you’re quoting.

As everyone knows, there are several versions and some differ in wording. So, for instance, the final verse you cite has been expressed in other translations of the Bible as "if a man lieth with boys as with a woman…"—ie. a decree against pedophilia, not homosexuality. (Of course, to you these may be one and the same, but that’s another debate for another time.)

Similarly, in earlier (and thus less corrupted) translations of the Bible, sodomy referred to inhospitality towards neighbors, not to sexual deviancy. Ditto for German editions versus English ones.

We can disagree about the validity of one interpretation over the other, but the fact that alternate interpretations have been presented throughout Christendom is beyond dispute. See, for example, The Parallel Bible, which offers at least four differing translations for every verse in scripture.

If you have the definitive word of God, how do you explain these incongruities? And how do you know that YOURS is the most accurate interpretation?